


Paintings and Their Deeper Meanings

by TaraTyler



Series: SuperCat Fam [13]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6804001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraTyler/pseuds/TaraTyler





	Paintings and Their Deeper Meanings

“Kira!” comes a shout from the fishbowl office that Cat Grant works out of. The off-duty super-heroine jumps to her feet immediately and runs to do as she is bid.

“Yes, Ms.Grant?” Kara asks, pen and pad held at the ready.

“What are you wearing?” Cat asks, peering at her assistant as though she had just realized that her puzzle had an extra piece that she hadn’t been aware of.

“Clothes, ma’am.” Kara answers in confusion.

“I am talking about something that you are wearing on your neck.” Cat stands from her chair and strides with utter confidence to Kara whose heartbeat quickened exponentially. She reached up and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Paint, ma’am. I’ll go wash it off now, if you like?” Kara offered.

Instead Cat continued to circle her as though she were prey.

“You were painting a room? Or painting recreationally?” Cat asks, more to herself than to Kara.

“That’s a personal question. You said that we were to be strictly professional now. YOu should have asked me that back when you thought that I was worth getting to know.” Kara answers, turning on her heel and getting a baby wipe from the top drawer of her desk to wipe that stain off before returning to work.

“Recreationally.” Cat says to herself as though making a decision. “She’s an artist.” 

It was odd that Cat had never discovered that particular fact before. It felt like something that she should have known. She studied Kara from in her office. Sometimes the glass room office came in handy. Cat smiled and began to formulate a plan.

For once there weren’t all that many jobs for Supergirl to do. Kara’s day was pretty slow all around. Cat seemed to be in a very strange mood after the paint incident. It was clear that she was thinking very hard about something. The whole office knew to avoid the boss.

Kara was glad to be going home so that she could wash off the day. Maybe she would pick up a sketchbook and fly up to the CatCo roof and draw for a while. Kara had a lot of feelings that she didn’t know what to do with. That was why artwork had drawn her in. It was a way to vent without having to put a name to what she felt.

She unlocked her front door and dragged herself inside. Kara groaned and flopped down onto the couch, glad to be alone for a while. Except that apparently she wasn’t. Now that she was quiet and still she could feel someone else in her home. She focused for a half second before her x-ray vision kicked in and she could see Cat Grant in her bathroom, a red cape held aloft in both hands.

She stands and stalks into the doorway of her bedroom.

“Alex has been telling me that I need to get better security.” Kara says as she enters the room and tosses her glasses onto the bed beside of Cat and lets her hair down to fall around her shoulders. “I guess that my cat is out of the bag.”

She pulls the cape out of Cat’s hands, holding it reverently against herself.

“This was a gift from my cousin.”

“I just wanted to find your artwork.” Cat says with a sigh. “I only stumbled across your secret by accident. I’m kind of sorry, but not really.”

“As long as you don’t tell anyone, I won’t be forced to toss you from anymore buildings.” Kara says with a shrug.

“Scout’s honor.” the older woman swears.

“What did you think?” Kara asks, surprising Cat with her lack of formality. Cat surprises herself by not caring.

“I’ve always thought that you were a great hero.” Cat says decidedly.

“I meant my artwork. That’s what you broke into my home to see, right?” Kara asks, lifting an eyebrow in Cat’s direction. Cat is thrown off of her game. It’s clear that this is no average situation. It isn’t everyday that a boss breaks into their employee’s house and discovers that they are a superhero.

“To be completely honest, I was distracted by the suit.” Cat admits. It was very disorienting to see Supergirl standing there in Kara’s clothes.

“This way.” Kara says, heading back into her living room. Cat stands and follows, unsure of what to expect. This was supposed to have been an exciting little foray into her own journalistic past. She was supposed to have come in, looked at a couple of amateur paintings, and seen how her assistant lived. Now she didn’t know how she had gotten here.

“Mostly I paint the things that I remember from my home planet of Krypton. My greatest fear is that I’ll forget one day. I’ll look back and not remember my father’s face or how it felt to play under the red sun.” Kara reached behind her couch and pulled up a canvas, running her fingers over what must have been a Kryptonian sunrise.

“I’ve lost a lot, Ms.Grant. I’ve lost more than anyone else on this planet can imagine, but everyday I go to work where I am surrounded by people who make me feel human, who make me remember what that means. That’s when I choose you again. That’s when I choose humanity, Earth, and National City again. I choose you everyday.” Kara looks wistfully at the painting and sets it onto the couch, but turns to Cat as she speaks, searching the older woman’s face for understanding.

Deep down, Cat knows that Kara is talking about a universal ‘you’ as in the people of Earth, but the larger part of her is hoping that on some level Kar means Cat herself. It hits her that every time she has been a mentor to Kara, she has been speaking to the hero of National City.

Every word that she’s said to Kara was also said to Supergirl. She’s been representing humanity for years. She has been the best and worst of them.

“Thank you, for choosing us then.” Cat says with a humility that she hasn’t felt in years.

Kara flops down onto the couch beside of the painting, allowing Cat to look through more of her art. She had been expecting amateurity but these were actually very good. Each piece had a sense of nostalgia to it. Cat could tell that each scene was something that Kara missed. It broke her heart.

“I will always choose you. Of that I have no doubt.” Kara says, her eyes weighing heavily upon Cat. “Your strength and kindness show me everyday what I want to do as Supergirl. You have always been the example that I have drawn upon. Supergirl is National City’s hero, but you, Alex, Winn, and James, are Supergirl’s heroes. She needs you. I need you.”

“You will always have a job at CatCo, Kara, don’t worry, and I will always be here when you need someone to talk to. I don’t think that I will understand any of what you may come across as Supergirl, but I will do my best.” Cat says, her heart pounding in her chest as Kara stands and sheds her cardigan.

“That’s all I ask.” Kara smiles and Cat squeezes her bicep. “Can I get you a drink or something? I can’t get drunk, but Alex hides alcohol around for herself everywhere that she goes.”

“I’m not so much a guest as a caught criminal, though. You aren’t my assistant right now. You’re just Kara Zor-El.” Cat says with a smile.

“Then why do I feel the need to get your coffee?” Kara laughs teasingly. It felt nice to talk to Cat like this, casually and personally. The older woman understood Kara in a way that no one else seemed to.

“Because I have trained you well.” Cat teases in reply. It felt natural and easy, like this was the way things were meant to progress. Kara returned with coffees and Cat’s was, of course, perfect. She smiled one of her real smiles, usually resolved for Carter alone.

“Thank you, Cat, for breaking into my apartment today. I hadn’t realized how much I needed it, and missed it.” Kara moves the painting back behind the couch and Cat sits across from her.

“I’ve missed our talks too, Kara. I should never have pushed you away like that. It’s just.. You have a tendency to make me feel all of these things that I don’t want to be feeling.” Cat doesn’t realize what she’s said until it’s out of her mouth.

Kara’s smile could light up a small town.

“Do I now?” she asks. “Tell me more.” 

Kara radiates the cool confidence of Supergirl, only now it is combined with all of the soft edges of Kara Danvers. This is Kara Zor-El.

“How about I just show you?” Cat asks, slowly setting her mug on the coffee table and advancing. Kara’s throat bobs and Cat doesn’t know which bit of her to kiss first. Then, Kara licks her lips and Cat’s mind is made up for her.


End file.
